Alison Weir

Friday evening Lindsay, Lyulph and I went to the National Army Museum for a talk by Alison Weir (see below) on Eleanor of Castile, whose biography she wrote over ten years ago, and about whom she has just published a novel, The Captive Queen. She said that when she first spoke to her publisher about the biography their reaction was that nobody would want to read about a 12th century woman they'd never heard of, but it turned out to be the best seller of all her historical works. The transition from historian to novelist was difficult, but in answer to a question she mentioned about half a dozen subjects on which there is work in progress. I wonder if she could be persuaded to write about Margaret Beaufort? There may not be a huge amount of material, but surely at least as much as there is on Eleanor. The moral could be that while early teenage pregnancies may not be good for the mother, the progeny can be outstanding.